1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gas-removing devices for removing impurity gases from the air that may be supplied to a fuel cell via an air supply system. The present invention also relates to air supply systems having such gas-removing devices. The fuel cell is known to generate electric energy by utilizing an electrochemical reaction of a fuel gas to the oxygen contained in the air.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional gas-removing device is taught in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-94200. As shown in FIG. 5, a gas-removing device 90 of this publication is provided in the air supply system 94 for a fuel cell 92. The gas-removing device 90 is used for removing impurity gases, such as organic solvent gases, contained in the air via the use of a container (not shown) filled with activated carbon. Therefore, to a certain degree it is possible to prevent the potential deterioration of an electrolyte of the fuel cell 92 due to chemical reactions between the electrolyte and the impurity gases that may be contained in the air.
In order to remove the impurity gases from the air the gas-removing device 90 of the above publication is constructed so as to absorb impurity gas particles into a number of micropores formed in the activated carbon. However, the impurity gas particles may not be effectively immobilized within the micropores. When the temperature changes or the flow rate of the air changes the impurity gas particles may become dissociated from the micropores and begin to flow again along with the flow of the air.